By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune News Editor
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
THE Supreme Court awarded a 72-year-old woman $62,500 in damages and $55,000 in costs after she sued the Goodman’s Bay Corporate Centre following a slip and fall accident she had in 2001.
Elva Lindsay, a former receptionist at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, which was housed at the corporate centre, was accompanying her supervisor out of the back door of the premises when she slipped on wet tile floor and fell badly, twisting her ankle and hit her head on the tiled floor in June 2001, according to deputy registrar Renaldo Toote’s assessment of damages ruling.
“She blacked out for a split second and when she got up, she felt a ‘big lump’ on her head. At the time, the plaintiff was 50 years old and weighed 245 pounds,” the ruling said.
Unsuccessful attempts at settling the matter prompted Ms Lindsay to sue the corporate centre in 2004, filing an amended statement of claim on November 20, 2015. A defence was filed in 2017 denying liability and negligence.
Ms Lindsay claimed she suffered a closed head injury, cerebral concussion, post-concussive syndrome, a cervical strain/sprain, cephalgia and cervical radiculopathy, lower back pain syndrome, herniated discs, lumbosacral degenerative disc disease and accompanying symptoms, including memory loss, poor concentration, shoulder pain, dizziness and spasms.
She said she was treated at Doctor’s Hospital for a long time after the incident and was put on numerous medications.
She suffered a stroke in 2004 and another in 2005, which she believes was a consequence of the accident.
She sought $140,404 in special damages.
Nonetheless, Mr Toote noted no medical expert testified about the woman’s injuries, the treatment she received or her prognosis, hurting her case.
Ultimately, he awarded her $62,500 as a “reasonable compensation” for the “pain, suffering and loss of amenity” she experienced. He did not award her for future medical expenses and physical therapy, finding she did not produce evidence substantiating what medical follow-up and physical therapy she required. He also declined to award her special damages.
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